Posted by JonI rolled up pretty early to a client site the other Monday morning, to set up for the day’s training course.

Their sales director – one of the very best in the business – was listening to, and occasionally participating in, ‎a “bid / no bid” conference call. The hoped-for outcome was the latter course of action, and he was merrily helping the participants talk themselves into that not-always-easy decision.

What struck me as interesting was the timing of the call, not something to which I’ve ever ‎given much thought previously. But if you want to get a team to qualify out of an opportunity, which time would you choose:​a) 8 a.m. Monday morning ‎(”you could have a straightforward week, or it could be stupidly busy and stressed if you take on all this extra work”)

b) some time on, say, Thursday morning – when the participants are already deep in hero-worker mode (”look at how much I’ve done this week!”) and not that fussed about or focused on the foll‎owing week’s schedule.